Chapter 48

  He instinctively crouched down to present as small a target as possible. However, he immediately realized he wasn’t being fired at. The smattering of gunfire echoed from a location somewhere northeast of his current position, though he couldn’t tell exactly where or how far away it was. He was able to dis several firearms being discharged, which meant it was a group of survivors shooting at mutants. Or they could be shooting it out among themselves. Just because the world had colpsed and most of the people had been turned into mutants didn’t mean hostilities among the remaining humans ended. Jake thought he heard someone shout something, but whoever was shouting was too far away for him to dis the exact words, even with his sharpened hearing.

  The gued for about half a minute more, and then silence desded. Jake waited, still croug down with his palms resting on the ground in front of him. He suddenly found this sitting position quite fortable and rexing. His anatomy had definitely ged more thahought before. As a human, he wouldn’t have been able to sit in such a pose for long without experieng muscle cramps. Now, as a mutant, he found he could remain in that position for aended period without any disfort. It had a soothing and rexing effe him.

  Jake waited for a few more minutes, but no additional sounds of gunfire reached his ears. Remaining in the same croug position as still as a statue, he sed the streets with his nonhuman eyes, searg for any threats, be they human or mutant. There was no sign of the people involved in the ret gunfight.

  That robably for the best. Jake wasn’t eager to enter any survivors. The only result would be to spook them. He recalled catg a glimpse of his own refle for the first time a few minutes earlier. It had frightened him a great deal, even though he was already somewhat aware of what his new body looked like. To others, he would undoubtedly appear absolutely terrifying. When others looked at him, they wouldn’t even sider that he could be a se being. He couldn’t speak, ae being a magical creature, he wasn’t a telepath either. Trying to unicate with survivors through gestures would also be a foolish idea. Being mistaken for another mutant, they would likely open fire on him long before he could have a ehow persuade them that he wasn’t a mindless monster.

  Hell, even if he somehow found a way to unicate effectively with humans, it didn’t guarantee he would get along with them. Making friends had been difficult even as a survivor, as many of the people he’d entered resorted to violerying to kill him for loot. Now that he was a mutant, he had even fewer aking friends with survivors. Besides, he didn’t have any reason to do so. His needs and goals no longer aligned with those of the survivors.

  Finally, Jake got to his feet. Pig a dire away from the ret gunfire, he slipped into a brisk jog, tinuing to explore the city.

  For the several hours, he battled groups of mutants, earning ks of XP for sying them. At some point, he leveled up to 6, gaining another skill point, bringing his total to 2. Unwilling to slow down, he postponed allog them. By the time the sun began to set, Jake had reached level 7, with 3 skill points now at his disposal. He was currently in a ten-story building overrun by mutants, systematically clearing out one floor after another. He decided to defeat the remaining mutants before assigning his skill points.

  Eventually, Jake made his way to the very top of the building, emerging onto the roof where he entered a siant—a whipper. As a survivor, he’d once had a mission to deal with ae mutant, which happeo be a whipper. Elite mutants were basically beefed-up versions ur ones. Later on, he had entered regur whippers as well. They were slightly more powerful than shamblers, which was why Jake hadn’t been keen on entering them, even though a regur whipper went for 75 XP.

  Being a morphus now, Jake had no doubts about his ability to take down the whipper before him without much trouble. He quickly assessed the mohe massive mutant stood in the ter of the roof, fag away from him. It was tall and bulky, resembling a shambler with its protective growth c most of its body. Standing over six feet tall, it had a muscur build. Its right arm extended into a loacle below the elbow, hanging at its side and moving through the air in a sinuous manner like a snake.

  Jake lurched toward the huge mutant. It heard him and spun around, dispying ued agility for its size. Its arm-tentacle luoward him with an io around his neck. It was fast, but Jake was faster. Still, running rashly toward the enemy, he wasn’t able to dodge the attapletely. He twisted to the side to absorb the blow on his shoulder. The tentacle turned out to be strohan it looked, the impact staggering him. The tentacle coiled back toward the whipper’s body. Before Jake could recover from the blow, the mutant struck out again, sending the tentacle flying back toward him. It unfurled with exceptional speed, zipping through the air.

  This time, Jake was ready. He dodged to the left, and the tip of the tentacle shot past him. A fra of a sed ter, he realized his mistake—the tentacle hadn’t inteo strike him directly. The end of the tentacle curled doroag him from behind, and ed around his ahe whipper quickly retracted its arm, pulling back the tentacle and sweeping Jake’s leg out from beh him, causing him to colpse onto his side. Had he still been a human, such a harsh fall would surely have resulted in a broken rib or two. Being a morphus, he didn’t eve a scratch.

  Jake attempted to free his leg from the tentacle’s grip, but the coils ed around his limb were too tight. The whipper started to pull him closer. This situation would have been terrifying for Jake when he was human, but as a mutant now, he simply allowed the mo him across the roof. With his talons, he could easily have severed the tentacle, but he chose not to. After all, the arm-tentacle served as the whipper’s primary on, and now that the mutant was using it to hold on to him, the whipper was defenseless. Well, maybe ly defenseless si still possessed sharp teeth and cws on its other hand, but while the mutant reoccupied with using its tentacle to restrain Jake, it was vulnerable and less dangerous. Besides, the whipper ulling him closer, and Jake’s inal pn was to close the distaween them anyway, albeit perhaps not in such a dired submissive manner.

  The whipper dragged him toward itself, then lifted Jake into the air. He dangled upside-down for a sed before the monster raised him even higher until his face was at the same level as the whipper’s. And that was when Jake’s hand shot out, his talons slig deeply into the mutant’s exposed throat. The whipper’s eyes registered a hint of surprise wheore a huge k of flesh out of its throat.

  He felt a shudder pass through the coils around his leg, and the pressure slightly lessened. Pulling his upper body up, he reached for the coils with his cwed hands and began w to remove them from his leg. As he tumbled to the ground, he twisted in midair and skillfully nded on his feet. Gng at his enemy, he saw a ragged hole in its throat, blood gushing freely from the wound. However, the adjat masses anic growth had already initiated the process eing the mutant’s damaged flesh, mending it with surprising speed.

  Only Jake wasn’t going to let them heal the wound. Wheentacle reached for him, he shed out with his cws, severing it in half. Blood sprayed everywhere from the stump as what was left of the tentacle filed in the air chaotically. The whipper reached for him with its other hand, but Jake danced behind his enemy, swiping at its neck, tearing to shreds both the anic growth and the flesh beh.

  Cws reached 100%. You ow increase it to Rank II.

  The whipper tried to turn around, but Jake also moved, stantly staying out of its line of sight and raking the mutant’s neck with his onstop. It didn’t take long for him to finish off the monster. When its huge body colpsed to the roof with a solid thud, another system notifierged in his mind.

  Enemy killed. +75 XP

  Jake surveyed his surroundings. He had successfully eliminated all the mutants within the high-rise building. With no more enemies around him, it was time to begin assigning his skill points.